One Year Anniversary
by writerdaemon
Summary: Although it's a beautiful day, Feferi is in a somber mood. Today isn't the day to be happy.


The sky was almost perfectly clear and a slight breeze rustled through the trees as Feferi walked, clutching a large bouquet of violets and lilies to her chest. She was in a somber mood today, though, and didn't really notice much of the beautiful day. Her feet padded softly on the pavement and she began counting the steps. Her mind was elsewhere, though. It had been a year.

One year. One year and she was the only one going.

She looked around, hoping to see a familiar face, but nobody she recognised was here. In fact, she was the only one here, practically. Apparently Tuesdays weren't very popular days to go to the cemetery.

She finally came to a stop in front of a headstone, rereading the words engraved in it for what seemed like the thousandth time. She had been coming here at least once a month for the past year, although it may have been more. It was probably more.

Feferi bent to lay the bouquet on the ground in front of the headstone and sighed. It never got easier for her to come here, but she did it anyway. She felt that she owed it to him. Sometimes, she felt slightly responsible. Maybe if she hadn't been so nasty to him when they split up, he wouldn't have done it. No, she needed to stop this kind of thinking. Her counselor at school had said it wasn't healthy.

Sweeping her skirt underneath her, she sat down on the ground.

"Hi, Eridan." She smiled sadly at the headstone. "How's it going? I'm doing fine." She took a shaky breath. Her eyes were welling up. They always did right around now.

"I… Kanaya and Karkat were going to come, but I haven't seen them. That would've been nice, huh?" She was responded to with silence. What had she expected, really?

"Eri, I… I'm just so sorry." She felt the first tear spill over, soon to be joined by more.

"I know it was my fault, and… I'm just so, so, sorry. I should have.. been... kinder..." She couldn't finish her sentence. She was crying too much, anyhow. She felt a hand on her shoulder and half expected to see Eridan, but instead saw the faces of Kanaya and Karkat. They made it. Kanaya bent to hug Feferi before putting her bouquet of light purple roses next to Feferi's violets and lilies. Karkat kneeled as well, not minding the fact that his dress pants were probably ruined now from the damp ground, and placed a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone next to the flowers.

"I don't think he would want you crying over him," Kanaya told her, gently patting her back.

"Anyway, I'm sure that wherever he is, he's glad you still care."

~:~:~

_Kar's right_, the wispy young-man shaped form thought as he stood behind the tree. His hair was still impeccable, even in death, and he still looked as tired as he had before he died. His milky white eyes had been watching the three of them for a few minutes now, and he was frankly quite surprised to see that any of them even cared. And Fef. Especially Fef. He was worried that she had already forgotten, but how could she have? She had been leaving flowers for him about three times a month for the entirety of the past year.

He had heard her apologise. He didn't want her to - it wasn't her fault he had killed himself. For the most part. Although, somewhere inside his not-quite corporeal form, it made him feel a sort of happiness that she cared that deeply for him still, even after how shoddily he had treated her.

Eridan's hand left the tree trunk as he walk/floated towards the group of his old friends, who were now all sitting in silence. He placed his hand on Feferi's shoulder, leaning down to whisper "It's alright, it wasn't your fault. Thank you."

~:~:~

A sudden cold breeze made Feferi shiver. Or was it a breeze? It was lingering, and she was quite cold now. Before she could reach for her coat, she could have sworn she heard Eridan tell her that it was alright, it wasn't her fault, and thank you. She passed it off as the wind, but felt a bit calmer now than she had before. Maybe it wasn't her fault.

She liked to believe that it was really him.

~:~:~

His job here was done. He was happy, yet somewhat regretful, that she had heard him. He suddenly wished that he hadn't ended his life so suddenly - his father would never want to touch his pistol ever again. He would have to buy a new one now, if he hadn't already. Eridan sighed and gave them all one last look before allowing the sea breeze to take him away. A last fleeting thought - how nice it was of his family to bury him by the sea.


End file.
